Friday January 29th, 2016

Posted at 6:23pm

A judge has ruled that the City of Windsor and Tecumseh went too far with its opt-out campaign.

In his ruling, Justice Terrence Patterson said that no further information may be distributed other than what currently exists.

He said that anybody who has opted out has the right to opt back in.

In a joint statement, the City and Tecumseh said “In response to the plaintiffs’ lawyers’ objections, the Court has made a limited order which directs that no further information should be distributed about the opt-out campaign, other than what already exists. The website established by the municipalities is now to add live links to the class action lawyers’ websites, and has done so.

In making this order, the Court accepted that the intention of the City and Town’s campaign was to inform potential claimants of these consequences, but expressed concerns about the breadth of the campaign. The City and Town are reviewing the court’s direction, but respect the decision and will abide by it unless a higher court directs otherwise.

In the meantime, consistent with the ruling, the municipalities will continue their existing messages subject to the direction given by the court about new information, while they study the decision.”